Formalists used to study the language neutrally. Sentences were examined in details while such linguists had closed their eyes on this reality that language is a human property which is used to communicate within society. Language was used to convey meaning and there were some who manipulated language to change reality so as to have control on others. Critical discourse analysts- whose thoughts originated from the works of French philosopher and sociologist Foucault, Freud, and Marx- studied and exposed this property of language. They started to make various researches on language use in societies to understand, expose and resist inequalities laid behind language use. It was a new approach to language based on its biased use within societies.
Societies in modern era are getting more complicated and heterogeneous and the more heterogeneous the society the more complicated the society and relations within it. Formation of nation states which hold in them many metropolitans in which lots of people with lots of ethnic, ideological, and historical backgrounds live consist the societies which are known today. Inside any such communities form many groups with different ideologies. These ideologies are constantly changing due to political reasons.
Ideology has got different definitions among them one is:" the set of factual and evaluative beliefs-that is the knowledge and the opinions- of a group." (Perez2003:5) these beliefs result in formation of rules which are designed to fulfill the interest of the subject group. There are many such groups in any society. They are constantly contesting each other to have a better opportunity to control the society in order to obtain their own interests.
One of the means to control society is mainly language. Language can be used to inform people. It can be used to provide people with enough information about an event or a fact to convince them to accept something or reject something. At the same time it can be used to deceive people. Many groups are accused of prevarication. Prevarication takes place by means of language.
Critical discourse analysis' main job is to understand these subtleties and expose them to the public so that they would be known by the ordinary people who in return will resist such abuses of language.